Rotator limit

The rotator on which the instruments are mounted has a limit range of slightly more than 400 degrees. It can occur that a limit is reached and the rotator needs to be rotated by 360 degrees before observations can continue which can interrupt on-going observations. The TCS already displayed the time remaining until a limit will be hit for the current pointing of the telescope, and also warning messages were issued starting 30 min before the limit would be reached. The warning messages have been extended and a new command has been created that can be issued from both the TCS and the sequencer that gives the remaining time before reaching the limit for the current pointing of the telescope. This allows for a specific check to be included in observing scripts to see if an exposure (or a whole set of observations) can be executed before a limit might be reached.



Thomas Augusteijn 2010-11-19